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XKipling’s India: the main street in
XTaloqan, August 2002
The Road to OxianaTo see the Oxus, that vast Central Asian river that never meets and ocean, has always been (for the British, at any rate) the ultimate test of an explorer’s mettle. Robert Byron’s The Road to Oxiana is (apart from being the greatest travel book in English*) an account of an unsuccessful quest to see it. His grotesque letter to the provincial governor applying for permission to see it is one of the highlights of the book:
In undertaking the journey from England to Afghan Turkestan, whose tedium and exertions have already been thrice repaid by the spectacle of Your Excellency’s beneficent administration, our capital object was to behold, with our own eyes, the waters of the Amu Darya, famed in history and romance as the River Oxus, and the theme of a celebrated English poem from the sacred pen of Matthew Arnold…
(The whole letter should be read on pages 333 to 336 of the hardback Picador edition – introduced by Bruce Chatwin – it gets even funnier.)
This trip gives you the chance to swim in the Oxus, as I have done several times. In fact, I once tried to cross it on inflated lorry tyres but was defeated by the strong current from the torrent of summer meltwater from glaciers in the Great Pamir.
For most of this trip, one is tracking Marco Polo. There is a scholarly debate about whether he actually did go to China or whether he made it all up. Having followed his route here with a copy of the Travels I have no doubt that he (or whoever wrote this section of the book) did in fact come here. And slowly following the Oxus downstream through rice fields, swimming in the river amongst clouds of dragonflies, accompanied by nomads and herds of Bactrian camels make this one of the most wonderful journeys I have ever made.
This area is archaeologically the richest in Afghanistan. This was the centre of the Greek Bactrian kingdom, founded by Alexander the Great, that flourished between 330 BC and 148 BC, when it fell to nomad invaders from the steppes. It has left its most spectacular trace at Ai Khanoum, the only Greek city to have been excavated in Central Asia. One can still see Corinthian column heads lying in the dust and the remains of a Greek theatre. We know from the remains of an enormous palace that the city was a royal one and Robin Lane Fox says that the city is almost certainly Alexandria-on-the-Oxus, which is good enough for me. (He cites the fact that the heroon is dedicated to a man called Kineas, a Thessalian name. We know from the ancient sources that Alexander discharged his Thessalian cavalry in the Oxus valley)
From Faisabad, we visit the northern towns of Afghanistan in the middle-Oxus valley. In medieval times, this was part of the great Muslim civilisation of Central Asia.
The northern towns are Kunduz, Taloqan, Mazar-i-Sharif and Balkh. Some of these are described in my Times piece. These places are largely unspoiled by the twentieth century. There are few cars. Most transport is by horse or donkey. In these places I felt that I was in touch with the world of Kipling’s India.
The countryside between the towns is lovely, lush and subtropical, quite different from the more arid Indian desert climate of the country south of the Hindu Kush.
Some of the photographs of Taloqan and Kunduz, I think, capture what the place is like. Large flocks of fat tail sheep driven by young boys are brought here for sale; bazaars selling silk chapans (the long sleeved Afghan coats that Kharzai wears) and melons and cheese made locally.
Marco Polo says that Taloqan produces ‘the finest salt in the world: The mountains to the south are very large and are made entirely of salt. It is so hard that it can only be got with a stout iron pick. And I assure you that it is so plentiful that it would suffice for all the world to the end of time.’
I found the salt mines exactly as Marco Polo had described them and the miners still using stout iron picks.
Balkh was the capital of the Greek Bactrian kingdom and Alexander’s headquarters for his Central Asian campaign. Archaeologists have been searching for Greek remains since the 1920s, but with no success. But now local treasure hunters have uncovered an undoubtedly Greek building. Further work will be necessary to establish its exact date, but it seems to be very early. It seems that the first archaeological site anywhere in the world that can be linked with Alexander during his life has been discovered. It is hard to overestimate the importance of this discovery.
But Balkh was an established city when Alexander arrived here. It was known even then as ‘the mother of cities’. The ruins have never been properly excavated and much remains to be discovered under Tamerlane’s city.
Mazar-i-Sharif, a comparatively large city, contains one of the most famous and beautiful mosques in Central Asia, with a population of sacred white doves. It is venerated at the tomb of Ali, the Prophet’s son-in-law. It is the centre of carpet production and trading.
Tashkurgan or Khulm was always one of the highlights of a visit to Afghanistan. Dupree describes it as ‘the last traditional Central Asian bazaar left in Afghanistan.’ One can buy dried figs, apricots and pomegranates, Uzbek embroidery, carpets and lapis lazuli carvings.